380 - Wall Plate Cut And Mark Materials and Tools Needed: 1. 2x4 and 2x6 plate 2. 8d hand-drive nails 3. House plans 4. A copy of the floor plan that can be marked with wall segment numbers

Issues to Be Aware Of: 1. Plates are to be cut per the plan dimensions. The traditional approach of cutting plates to fit the “as- built” deck leaves you open to the risks of propagating and worsening any errors in the deck size. By cutting the plates to the plan dimensions, we are more likely to correct the problems by over/under hanging the walls on the deck. 2. Plans may be wrong. Check with the construction manager to see if any window or door sizes or locations on the plan are wrong and should be changed. 3. Headers for exterior doors and windows are not all the same. They are individually specified on the structural drawings – per the calculated load. Upper cripple sizes are different accordingly. 4. How walls lap each other is undocumented. An exterior wall can run to the end of the deck or could stop 5 ½ inch short because the perpendicular wall runs to the end of the deck. 5. A common layout error is not accounting for wall intersections. For example, if the wall you are laying out stops 5 ½ inch short of the end of the deck to allow for the perpendicular wall, then include that 5 ½ inches in your placement of the 1st . Clearing illustrating on the wall segment drawing how walls intersect will significantly help those standing the walls. 6. Do not measure from stud to stud. Instead, measure from end of plate to each stud (datum dimensioning). This reduces accumulated error. If a long wall is built in 2 pieces, the 16 OC pattern should start on 1 segment and continue into the 2nd segment. Do not pull from the beginning of the 2nd segment to start layout. 7. Long 2x4s and 2x6s from the lumberyard are usually an inch or more longer than their advertised length. For example, a 16 ft 2x4 is usually 16 ft 1 inch. So, if you are building a 16 ft wall segment, you cannot use 16ft 2x4s as plates without 1st trimming them. 8. 1st floor and 2nd floor of walls not on same layout. This can be a problem if 4x8 sheet is being used or if this wall is a divider wall between 2 units of a n-plex building. In those cases, it is quite important that the stud placement be the same on 1st and 2nd floor parts of that exterior wall.

Construction: The exact layout situation and issues may differ from house to house. So, following are more guidelines than they are exact processes. The person doing layout should have a good amount of experience in building and placing walls.

1. Window and Door dimensions  Exterior door rough opening – 2 inches wider than door size. 83” from bottom of header to subfloor. This requires 81 ½ inch trimmers. With a 92 5/8 inch stud, and 2x6 on edge header, that requires a 5 5/8 inch upper cripple.  Window rough opening – same as window size. Windows are typically(not always) set at same elevation as exterior doors – 83 inches from floor to header, 81 ½ in trimmer. For a “4-0” (4 ft 0 inch) tall window, using 2x6 on edge header, 5 5/8 upper and 32 inch lower cripples are required.

Rev 4.0 5/22/2015 380 - Wall Plate Cut And Mark  Standard interior door rough openings – 2 inches wider than door size. 83” from bottom of header to subfloor. No trimmers.  Bypass door rough opening – same as door width. 84” from bottom of header to subfloor.  Bifold door rough opening – 1” wider than door. 81-1/2” from bottom of header to subfloor.  Top of window rough opening - 83” from header to subfloor.

2. Layout standards a. Exterior wall studs are 16 inches on center (because of siding nailing requirements, not due to load) b. Exterior walls plates & studs are 2x6 unless otherwise specified (for example, dividing walls in n-plexes) c. Exterior wall headers sized individually per structural drawing d. Quantity of trimmers and kings around windows, doors, etc in exterior walls individually specified per structural drawing. Default is 1 king and 1 trimmer. e. We do 2 stud exterior corners. Traditional 3 stud corners are big heat leaks – impossible to insulate f. Interior wall studs 24 inches on center g. Interior wall studs and plates are 2x4 unless otherwise specified (for example, plumbing walls). h. No structural headers over interior doors i. No cripples over pre-hung interior doors j. No trimmers around interior doors k. Sometimes the architect’s drawings do not put a dimension on a door. Typically, this is in cases where a door is immediately adjacent to an intersecting wall. In those cases, place the rough opening 3 inches away from the intersecting wall. This is sufficient for door trim. l. Do not break wall segments in the middle of a window or door rough opening. It is quite important that these openings be as straight and strong as possible. Break the wall segment somewhere else. m. Exterior doors should have two studs on both sides, either one king/one trimmer or two kings. n. Plates should be well marked so volunteers building do not have to make any assumptions. Marks include: cardinal direction of the plates, top and bottom plate, header length and size, RO’s, cripple lengths, trimmer lengths for non-standard features such as box window and dropped beams, stud lengths for non-standard features such as half walls and ballon walls, skipped studs and trimmers.

3. Layout Exterior Walls It is arbitrary which way walls intersect each other (which runs to the edge of the floor and which stops 5 ½ inch back from the edge. For very small walls (such as those for a 1 or 2 ft bump-out), it is better to make that wall as long as possible. Very short plates tend to split when you drive a nail into them. So, make them as long as possible.

Cut a pair of plates to the length needed for a wall segment. Nail them together with a couple 8D nails.

When you start the 16 OC layout for a wall that runs to the end of the floor, hook your tape on the end of the plate-pair and start marking minus ¾ inch and plus ¾ inch for each 16 inch spot. That will be the near and far side of each stud. Darken those marks with your speed and pencil and mark as “X”. “X” is the traditional mark for a stud. Rev 4.0 5/22/2015 380 - Wall Plate Cut And Mark

If you are starting a 16 OC layout for a wall that stops 5 ½ inch away from the end of the floor, have someone hold the tape at 5 ½ inch at the end of the wall segment. Then, do the every 16 inch layout as described above.

If you are starting a 16 OC layout for the 2nd of 2 wall segments that make a full wall, have someone place the end of the tape such that you continue the same OC spacing as you started on the 1st wall segment.

On the architects drawing, most windows and doors are dimensioned to their centerline. Mark those centerlines on the plates. (starting at either 0 inches or 5 ½ inches). Divide the rough opening dimension by 2 and mark that dimension on each side of the centerline. Then, verify your math by measuring that from left to right mark is the correct full rough opening dimension. Your left and right marks are the inside edge of the trimmers. Mark out another 1 ½ inch for the far side of the trimmers and another 1 ½ inch for the far sides of the king studs. Mark with “K” and “T”.

Reference the structural drawing to identify what size header is needed. Cut that header to be the width of the rough opening plus 3 inches for single cripple application or 6 inches for double trimmer application. For non-load bearing walls the header is usually a flat 2x4 or 2x6. For a load bearing wall, the header typically has foam sandwiched between the plies of the header.

For a window, calculate the lower cripple length. That is the height of the top of the window (see section 2) minus the height of the window, minus 1 ½ inch for the window sill. Check the layout to see how many cripples are needed in a specific situation.

For windows and doors, calculate the upper cripple length. That is 92 5/8 minus the trimmer height, minus the header’s height.

Label each cripple, trimmer and header. Nail this all together (one layer at a time using 8D nails) with the top and bottom plate. Clearly mark the wall segment number on this lumber stack and on the wall segment drawing. 1st floor walls are numbered 1xx. 2nd floor walls are numbered 2xx.

Studs on dividing walls next to the shaft liner should be shifted 1.5” to allow for installation of the melt-away clips.

4. Layout Interior Walls Interior wall layout is very similar to layout of exterior walls.

The dimensioning of the architectural drawings is inconsistent. Sometimes a dimension is for just an interior wall. Sometimes, the dimension runs from the outside of the intersecting exterior wall. Sometimes, it runs from outside of exterior wall to inside of neighboring interior wall. Check the drawing carefully to determine the length of the wall you are laying out.

Rev 4.0 5/22/2015 380 - Wall Plate Cut And Mark Lay out walls in the longest wall possible. For example, one wall may divide 2 bedrooms and continue to define one side of a hallway. By laying this out as one wall, you will get the straightest possible implementation.

5. Special walls Garage door walls should not be laid out in advance. The exact placement of trimmers around garage door headers depends on the exact size of the foundation stem wall around the door opening. Layout of this wall is done at the site after the foundation is measured.

Single car garage doors are 8 ft wide by 7 ft tall. The 2x8 finish trim put around the door opening should bring the dimension down to 7 ft 11 in wide by 6 ft 11 in tall. Extra trimmers or other shim material may be needed to bring the opening to this size and still have the primary trimmers rest on the stem wall.

Garage walls are built with pressure treated bottom plates.

The dimensions on a rake wall that runs between the 2 flights of a stairway depends on the details of the stairway installation. It is typically best that this be laid out after the stairs are installed.

Rev 4.0 5/22/2015 380 - Wall Plate Cut And Mark Safety

46 Struck By Power tools or other Safety Glasses required with any power tools objects shot toward eyes

47 Tools - Hand Circular - propped When using a , short end of the cut is and Power between 2 supports, cut in left to fall away. Do not make a cut in-between 2 the middle, blade is pinched, supported ends. If someone is holding the drop- kickback causes injury away end, he/she must lightly support it, letting it sag as the cut is made

No cutting with wood propped over a worker’s foot or supported by hand.

48 Tools - Hand Circular Saw - arms, legs etc Common practice among carpenters is to and Power too close to cut support the cut with their foot. This is not accepted practice at Habitat. Cut to be done on saw horses or otherwise supported away from body

50 Tools - Hand - one hand pulling If necessary, switch hands so hand holding the and Power trigger on handle, other hand material is well away from blade. Do not trim too close to cut zone, hand very small pieces. Cut a new small piece for a cut larger piece that will allow you holding hand to be far away from blade.

51 Tools - Hand Defective or dull power tool Red tag defective or dull tools. Do not put back and Power such tools back in the POD exposing some other worker to the same risk.

I have heard and understood the briefings on how to use the tools required for this activity. I have heard and understood the methods we use to do this activity

Date ______Instructor Name ______Signature ______Name ______Signature

Rev 4.0 5/22/2015 380 - Wall Plate Cut And Mark

Rev 4.0 5/22/2015